☀️ Good morning and welcome back to The Nosebleeds.

✋ Week 5 of the NFL season, MLB playoffs, big NHL signings—plenty to discuss today.

⚾️ Play ball.

👑 The NFL’s best team—the San Francisco 49ers

With the world watching on Sunday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers utterly dominated “America’s team,” the Dallas Cowboys, with a 42-10 victory.

Considered by many to be the two top teams in the NFC (maybe the whole NFL), Brock Purdy and the Niners showed the world that they are the best team in football from top to bottom and have no weaknesses in their victory over the Cowboys.

Offense, defense, coaching—all elite.

The big question mark for the Niners heading into this season was if QB Brock Purdy was good enough to lead this roster to a Super Bowl. And through five weeks this season, Purdy has certainly put those questions to bed. He has been one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks, as exhibited below.

Yes, much of Purdy’s success can be attributed to being a product of a Kyle Shanahan-led offense, but he is absolutely not a system quarterback—he is one the league’s best, and may just lead the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl LVIII victory.

📈 NFL Power Rankings [Top 10]

1. 49ers

2. Bills

3. Chiefs

4. Cowboys

5. Dolphins

6. Eagles

7. Ravens

8. Lions

9. Chargers

10. Seahawks

❌ Orioles, Dodgers on brink of elimination

Through two games in the LDS:

• Rangers lead the Orioles 2-0

  • Texas has an 88.2% chance of advancing to the ALCS after winning both games in Baltimore.

• Astros and Twins tied 1-1

  • Houston has a 55.5% chance of advancing to the ALCS as Minnesota heads back home happy to get the split in Houston.

• Braves and Phillies tied 1-1

  • Philly nearly took a 2-0 series lead back home, but Austin Riley hit a clutch home run late in Game 2 and Michael Harris made an unreal defensive play to salvage a split for Atlanta.

• Diamondbacks lead the Dodgers 2-0

  • The 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks are only one win away from taking down the Dodgers and heading to the NLCS for the first time since 2007.

🤔 MLB Trivia

Baltimore and Los Angeles both lost their first two games at home in the Division Series.

• Question: who was the last team to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the Division Series after losing the first two games at home?

Answer at the bottom.

❄️ Hellebuyck and Scheifele sign matching deals with Jets

For better or worse, the Winnipeg Jets have elected to keep their core intact.

Both Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck signed 7-year, $8.5M AAV extensions with the Winnipeg Jets. This is a monumental moment for the franchise, as it seemed like neither of these players would be returning to Winnipeg based on all of the discourse this summer.

These deals essentially guarantee two things.

1. The Winnipeg Jets have no interest in tanking or rebuilding.

2. Both these players will have their numbers hanging from the rafters of the Canada Life Centre when it is all said and done.

As far as the contracts go, Connor Hellebuyck has been an elite goalie for a half-decade now, and absolutely deserves the raise. The Winnipeg Jets will only go as far as he takes them. Mark Scheifele’s new deal, on the other hand, is a different story. A 30-year old center who lollygags defensively… I am not sure this contract will age well as Scheifele gets older.

Currently, the Winnipeg Jets are not good enough to win a Stanley Cup. If the team hopes to one day win a championship with these two players at the helm, the Jets’ front office has plenty more work to do to make the Winnipeg Jets a bonafide Stanley Cup contender.

⚔️ Sabres sign Rasmus Dahlin to massive extension

Buffalo locks up their young superstar for the long-haul.

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• Trivia Answer: The Toronto Blue Jays over the Texas Rangers in 2015 (yes, the Bautista Bat Flip series).